Why the polarised views on Dempsey?

They had one when Demspey toured Europe and Schmeling was a youngling. Something like 1924 I think. No film of that though. Apparently Dempsey thought well of young Max and told him he´ll be a world champ one day - he said this to about everyone in those exhibitions though. This made a big impression on Max, he talked about his a few times and Schmeling wasn´t the kind of guy who enjoyed boasting with stuff. Schmeling said this motivated him a lot and eventually he would prove Jack true. :thumbsup

 

Fred Fulton was rated by many as the leading contender.
Jess Willard was champion of the world.
Tommy Gibbons, Luis Firpo were at least contenders.
Sharkey was top contender for Tunney.

 

Great story

 

You are mixing up fact and your opinion a bit there, mate. :thumbsup

 

OK, I don't know what Arcel said.
But a consensus of opinion on a broad point, eg. Dempsey in his prime was of comparable quality from a ringside perspective to Joe Louis etc., should be taken on board.

 

I am a Dempsey critic but calling Firpo a fail is a stretch and then some. You'd have more of a case calling the first Miske fight a fail. And anyone criticising Lennox for his KO losses needs to do the same to Dempsey with his Flynn knock out loss

 

Powerpuncher picks Robinson over Burley, that should topple the argument in Robinson's favour. Also didn't JG see both and say SRR was that bit sweeter, someone on here did

 

I agree with most of that.
I do think it's problematic to rank the contenders definitively by these retroactive methods.
Just as it is to go strictly on what perceptions at the time were.
Obviously Wills was known to be a top contender throughout Dempsey's reign, but there are probably points at which there would have been doubts about him being #2 too.
Take his career as a whole and he's an outstanding rival simply on longevity and consistent results, and arguably superior to even Dempsey. But broken down into smaller parts there were stretches where Wills was not necessarily hotter than the rest.
And outside of Wills, there's no case against Dempsey at all, IMO.

 

Does this give any credance to picking Gibbons over Greb?

http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=300838&highlight=gibbons

 

I wonder how much this was personal preferance. Burley may have been a more likeable and certainly more humble man. Robinson was effectively the Roy Jones or Mayweather of his era, I'm sure he rubbed a few the wrong way

 

1. Regarding Greb, he was a 163 pound middleweight creampuff puncher who pot-shotted his way to the final bell, often "winning" by the "Newspaper" decision.
He was small and he never knocked out a decent heavyweight (correct me if I'm wrong).
Who needs HIM as heavyweight champeen ?

2. The public sure as hell paid big money to pack the stadium to see Dempsey fight Firpo.
I wonder if those who took part in the poll were the same ticket-buying public ? Firpo seems to have been box office magic, as evidenced by his fights with Wills and Willard too.

But, sure, I take your point. Obviously Wills' standing was at a high point from 1922/'23 onwards. When you keep winning and don't go anywhere the public have to see you have paid your dues.